Zeus

The fact that we're talking about shaving cream on a visual kei forum means they win.

The fact that we're talking about shaving cream on a visual kei forum means they win.

I agree with all the reasons mentioned above. The state of MH is affected by a multitude of factors. The state of filesharing, the state of the VK scene, the season, aging fanbase, and so on.
 
However, one thing I've noticed that has had a serious effect on our community over the years - and something that rarely gets mentioned - are the individual attitudes of our members. Now no community is perfect, but I've noticed that there's a subset of users here who seem to pride themselves on being "bitchy" and "petty", and seem to have set their hearts on being divisive - the kind of users that would rather talk shit about other users than discuss music with them.
 
Most probably don't think of themselves as part of a community here, but the fact is - we're a community because we all have a common unity - J-rock and Visual Kei. So when you have users injecting divisive elements like the ones I just mentioned, it becomes cancerous to the community as a whole. I've seen users here continually hold other users in contempt for shit they did YEARS ago. I've seen users start shit with other users for no reason. I've seen users intentionally set out to "burn" other users just to seem "cool". I've seen users intentionally stalk and harass other members. I've seen A LOT being staff here for over a decade.
 
Hell, even I've been thrown under the bus by certain members here - and if anyone knows me, I've always strived to be as understanding, agreeable, and diplomatic as possible - as a staff member, fellow fan, and friend. But regardless, there are people who are purely intent on being divisive - even when you approach them with good intents. But for what? Who does that help? Who does that serve? It definitely doesn't help the community at all. 
 
I can't tell you the amount of times people have come to me personally and explained how they want to participate here, but they're afraid of getting bitched at for having a different opinion, or attacked for any odd reason. Many people have left the community for these very reasons as well. I'm pretty sure some people get off on being an asshole or a "sassy bitch", but that shit ain't cool to people who just wanna come here to fellowship with other J-rock fans in peace. We all got lives outside of here (which are difficult enough as is), so the last thing any of us want to do is log on to see some GROWN-ASS ADULT with the maturity of an emotionally neglected 13 year old project their own misery on to others. That shit ain't it.
 
And yeah, lest anyone want to call me out as a hypocrite -  I READILY admit that I've played my part in the divisiveness and the nonsense in times past as well, and I take 110% responsibility for it. I'm not innocent either and I'll be THE FIRST to tell you that I ain't perfect. Far from it. But the point of this post is not to place blame on anyone or to call anyone out. It's simply to call awareness to the fact that we all contribute to the state of this community on an individual level as well. Our individual contributions have a resounding effect on the whole, like a ripple effect. As staff, we can enforce certain rules here. But we cannot dictate the attitudes of the members here. We can't dictate how you choose to interface with the community here. We cannot dictate the state of your heart. Nor would we want to do any of that.
 
I simply want to point out that the actions we take here, no matter how meaningless or miniscule they seem, DO have an effect. And based on those actions, the state of our community will either be tilted in a better direction or a worse direction. It's up to yall to decide.

If you do, don't expect it to be like DOGMA. DOGMA is it's own unique thing in GazettE's history and I could only really see that after seeing what came before and what came after. It's a really good album, lower than my score would suggest, and it's one that grows on you over time. Glad to hear you are enjoying it! Did you like NINTH?

best mh update 2k18

i just had a gum graft i feel u

i'm gonna have to agree with @nekkichi on this one this deff isn't exhaustive

i'm gonna have to agree with @nekkichi on this one this deff isn't exhaustive

idk who that user is, but if your eSsEnTiAls completely exclude baiser and penicillin, but have place for david shito al, dir en grey and glay in one list it's....a very eclectic approach to recommending music tbh
 
who the fuck are Gilles De Rais

lmfaooooo

This is the thread for memes 
https://www.monochrome-heaven.com/topic/30937-the-extremely-official-mh-j-meme-thread/

ro plz

Just u wait good sir

it's like starting a new save file in an rpg after not playing for a few months. same game, new experiences.

it's like starting a new save file in an rpg after not playing for a few months. same game, new experiences.

@Tokage I can think of a few reasons:
 
Buying music is expensive in this scene. People spend a lot of money to import CDs of their favorites and a lot of the time, that's the only way this music ends up in international waters. It is important to know that when this began, people were not just taking links but taking credit for them too, and then sticking monetization pages like Ad.Fly on top of it so that they could basically make money off of piracy. People like validation for spending money to bring joy to others. Whether that's a good thing is another discussion entirely. When people take links and put it on their blogs and don't redirect others back to the source, it fragments the scene. There are a lot of people in these visual kei groups that don't even know Monochrome Heaven exists, but if we were to go down tomorrow they'd suddenly have no place to get 40%+ of the music in the visual kei scene, because JPopSuki doesn't have everything to the degree that we do. Now whether putting our name out there like that or not is a good thing is, once again, a completely different discussion. On the other note of the same coin as #2, people putting links out there while crediting Monochrome Heaven amplifies the target on our back, and the backs of the uploaders. A small subset of releases that get leaked here weren't ever supposed to be leaked here, and those with connections to band members who gave them the music in confidence could get into hot water. I've been the target of this myself for uploading rare live distributed releases in the past, so I know this isn't just bullshit. Taking the link itself doesn't add any layers of redundancy. Once the link disappears/gets taken down/is otherwise unavailable, there isn't another place to go get that link because all 343 blog spots that track visual kei uploads from Monochrome Heaven were too fucking lazy to upload it to their own account, so in a flash all of the links for a release get taken down and there's no way to find it again. The value in blogs is that the links are preserved in multiple places. People who go through the effort to add redundancy to the scene are doing us all a service. People who just lift links and put it on their blog to stroke their ego suck dick and do nothing valuable with their free time. As an extension to 4, when a link for a very popular release goes online and that link spreads like wildfire, it endangers the account of the original uploader, who may have other valuable musics and personal things on that account. If that account gets terminated, it's not just one link that goes offline: it's multiple. This is how music gets lost to time. People who steal links are often lurkers who contribute little to Monochrome Heaven but owe a lot to our existence, which is why there is so little we can do about them. Hell, there's a chinese service which basically steals all of our links, hosts it themselves, and then puts ads on the site to make money. $cumbag central.  
This complaining can be annoying from time to time, but there are very real considerations underneath the hood that shouldn't be brushed off. On one hand, yes, people will always take music and you shouldn't share anything publicly that you would want to see publicly. On the other hand, there are right and wrong ways to share music, right and wrong reasons to share music, and the right and wrong places to do it too. When you lump all of these considerations into "this person just wants his dick sucked for promoting piracy", you lose a lot of the other aspects to the situation too. It's very complex, and the moderation team has tried (and failed) many different approaches to ameliorating the situation, but it is what it is.

@Tokage I can think of a few reasons:
 
Buying music is expensive in this scene. People spend a lot of money to import CDs of their favorites and a lot of the time, that's the only way this music ends up in international waters. It is important to know that when this began, people were not just taking links but taking credit for them too, and then sticking monetization pages like Ad.Fly on top of it so that they could basically make money off of piracy. People like validation for spending money to bring joy to others. Whether that's a good thing is another discussion entirely. When people take links and put it on their blogs and don't redirect others back to the source, it fragments the scene. There are a lot of people in these visual kei groups that don't even know Monochrome Heaven exists, but if we were to go down tomorrow they'd suddenly have no place to get 40%+ of the music in the visual kei scene, because JPopSuki doesn't have everything to the degree that we do. Now whether putting our name out there like that or not is a good thing is, once again, a completely different discussion. On the other note of the same coin as #2, people putting links out there while crediting Monochrome Heaven amplifies the target on our back, and the backs of the uploaders. A small subset of releases that get leaked here weren't ever supposed to be leaked here, and those with connections to band members who gave them the music in confidence could get into hot water. I've been the target of this myself for uploading rare live distributed releases in the past, so I know this isn't just bullshit. Taking the link itself doesn't add any layers of redundancy. Once the link disappears/gets taken down/is otherwise unavailable, there isn't another place to go get that link because all 343 blog spots that track visual kei uploads from Monochrome Heaven were too fucking lazy to upload it to their own account, so in a flash all of the links for a release get taken down and there's no way to find it again. The value in blogs is that the links are preserved in multiple places. People who go through the effort to add redundancy to the scene are doing us all a service. People who just lift links and put it on their blog to stroke their ego suck dick and do nothing valuable with their free time. As an extension to 4, when a link for a very popular release goes online and that link spreads like wildfire, it endangers the account of the original uploader, who may have other valuable musics and personal things on that account. If that account gets terminated, it's not just one link that goes offline: it's multiple. This is how music gets lost to time. People who steal links are often lurkers who contribute little to Monochrome Heaven but owe a lot to our existence, which is why there is so little we can do about them. Hell, there's a chinese service which basically steals all of our links, hosts it themselves, and then puts ads on the site to make money. $cumbag central.  
This complaining can be annoying from time to time, but there are very real considerations underneath the hood that shouldn't be brushed off. On one hand, yes, people will always take music and you shouldn't share anything publicly that you would want to see publicly. On the other hand, there are right and wrong ways to share music, right and wrong reasons to share music, and the right and wrong places to do it too. When you lump all of these considerations into "this person just wants his dick sucked for promoting piracy", you lose a lot of the other aspects to the situation too. It's very complex, and the moderation team has tried (and failed) many different approaches to ameliorating the situation, but it is what it is.

@Tokage I can think of a few reasons:
 
Buying music is expensive in this scene. People spend a lot of money to import CDs of their favorites and a lot of the time, that's the only way this music ends up in international waters. It is important to know that when this began, people were not just taking links but taking credit for them too, and then sticking monetization pages like Ad.Fly on top of it so that they could basically make money off of piracy. People like validation for spending money to bring joy to others. Whether that's a good thing is another discussion entirely. When people take links and put it on their blogs and don't redirect others back to the source, it fragments the scene. There are a lot of people in these visual kei groups that don't even know Monochrome Heaven exists, but if we were to go down tomorrow they'd suddenly have no place to get 40%+ of the music in the visual kei scene, because JPopSuki doesn't have everything to the degree that we do. Now whether putting our name out there like that or not is a good thing is, once again, a completely different discussion. On the other note of the same coin as #2, people putting links out there while crediting Monochrome Heaven amplifies the target on our back, and the backs of the uploaders. A small subset of releases that get leaked here weren't ever supposed to be leaked here, and those with connections to band members who gave them the music in confidence could get into hot water. I've been the target of this myself for uploading rare live distributed releases in the past, so I know this isn't just bullshit. Taking the link itself doesn't add any layers of redundancy. Once the link disappears/gets taken down/is otherwise unavailable, there isn't another place to go get that link because all 343 blog spots that track visual kei uploads from Monochrome Heaven were too fucking lazy to upload it to their own account, so in a flash all of the links for a release get taken down and there's no way to find it again. The value in blogs is that the links are preserved in multiple places. People who go through the effort to add redundancy to the scene are doing us all a service. People who just lift links and put it on their blog to stroke their ego suck dick and do nothing valuable with their free time. As an extension to 4, when a link for a very popular release goes online and that link spreads like wildfire, it endangers the account of the original uploader, who may have other valuable musics and personal things on that account. If that account gets terminated, it's not just one link that goes offline: it's multiple. This is how music gets lost to time. People who steal links are often lurkers who contribute little to Monochrome Heaven but owe a lot to our existence, which is why there is so little we can do about them. Hell, there's a chinese service which basically steals all of our links, hosts it themselves, and then puts ads on the site to make money. $cumbag central.  
This complaining can be annoying from time to time, but there are very real considerations underneath the hood that shouldn't be brushed off. On one hand, yes, people will always take music and you shouldn't share anything publicly that you would want to see publicly. On the other hand, there are right and wrong ways to share music, right and wrong reasons to share music, and the right and wrong places to do it too. When you lump all of these considerations into "this person just wants his dick sucked for promoting piracy", you lose a lot of the other aspects to the situation too. It's very complex, and the moderation team has tried (and failed) many different approaches to ameliorating the situation, but it is what it is.

@Tokage I can think of a few reasons:
 
Buying music is expensive in this scene. People spend a lot of money to import CDs of their favorites and a lot of the time, that's the only way this music ends up in international waters. It is important to know that when this began, people were not just taking links but taking credit for them too, and then sticking monetization pages like Ad.Fly on top of it so that they could basically make money off of piracy. People like validation for spending money to bring joy to others. Whether that's a good thing is another discussion entirely. When people take links and put it on their blogs and don't redirect others back to the source, it fragments the scene. There are a lot of people in these visual kei groups that don't even know Monochrome Heaven exists, but if we were to go down tomorrow they'd suddenly have no place to get 40%+ of the music in the visual kei scene, because JPopSuki doesn't have everything to the degree that we do. Now whether putting our name out there like that or not is a good thing is, once again, a completely different discussion. On the other note of the same coin as #2, people putting links out there while crediting Monochrome Heaven amplifies the target on our back, and the backs of the uploaders. A small subset of releases that get leaked here weren't ever supposed to be leaked here, and those with connections to band members who gave them the music in confidence could get into hot water. I've been the target of this myself for uploading rare live distributed releases in the past, so I know this isn't just bullshit. Taking the link itself doesn't add any layers of redundancy. Once the link disappears/gets taken down/is otherwise unavailable, there isn't another place to go get that link because all 343 blog spots that track visual kei uploads from Monochrome Heaven were too fucking lazy to upload it to their own account, so in a flash all of the links for a release get taken down and there's no way to find it again. The value in blogs is that the links are preserved in multiple places. People who go through the effort to add redundancy to the scene are doing us all a service. People who just lift links and put it on their blog to stroke their ego suck dick and do nothing valuable with their free time. As an extension to 4, when a link for a very popular release goes online and that link spreads like wildfire, it endangers the account of the original uploader, who may have other valuable musics and personal things on that account. If that account gets terminated, it's not just one link that goes offline: it's multiple. This is how music gets lost to time. People who steal links are often lurkers who contribute little to Monochrome Heaven but owe a lot to our existence, which is why there is so little we can do about them. Hell, there's a chinese service which basically steals all of our links, hosts it themselves, and then puts ads on the site to make money. $cumbag central.  
This complaining can be annoying from time to time, but there are very real considerations underneath the hood that shouldn't be brushed off. On one hand, yes, people will always take music and you shouldn't share anything publicly that you would want to see publicly. On the other hand, there are right and wrong ways to share music, right and wrong reasons to share music, and the right and wrong places to do it too. When you lump all of these considerations into "this person just wants his dick sucked for promoting piracy", you lose a lot of the other aspects to the situation too. It's very complex, and the moderation team has tried (and failed) many different approaches to ameliorating the situation, but it is what it is.

@Tokage I can think of a few reasons:
 
Buying music is expensive in this scene. People spend a lot of money to import CDs of their favorites and a lot of the time, that's the only way this music ends up in international waters. It is important to know that when this began, people were not just taking links but taking credit for them too, and then sticking monetization pages like Ad.Fly on top of it so that they could basically make money off of piracy. People like validation for spending money to bring joy to others. Whether that's a good thing is another discussion entirely. When people take links and put it on their blogs and don't redirect others back to the source, it fragments the scene. There are a lot of people in these visual kei groups that don't even know Monochrome Heaven exists, but if we were to go down tomorrow they'd suddenly have no place to get 40%+ of the music in the visual kei scene, because JPopSuki doesn't have everything to the degree that we do. Now whether putting our name out there like that or not is a good thing is, once again, a completely different discussion. On the other note of the same coin as #2, people putting links out there while crediting Monochrome Heaven amplifies the target on our back, and the backs of the uploaders. A small subset of releases that get leaked here weren't ever supposed to be leaked here, and those with connections to band members who gave them the music in confidence could get into hot water. I've been the target of this myself for uploading rare live distributed releases in the past, so I know this isn't just bullshit. Taking the link itself doesn't add any layers of redundancy. Once the link disappears/gets taken down/is otherwise unavailable, there isn't another place to go get that link because all 343 blog spots that track visual kei uploads from Monochrome Heaven were too fucking lazy to upload it to their own account, so in a flash all of the links for a release get taken down and there's no way to find it again. The value in blogs is that the links are preserved in multiple places. People who go through the effort to add redundancy to the scene are doing us all a service. People who just lift links and put it on their blog to stroke their ego suck dick and do nothing valuable with their free time. As an extension to 4, when a link for a very popular release goes online and that link spreads like wildfire, it endangers the account of the original uploader, who may have other valuable musics and personal things on that account. If that account gets terminated, it's not just one link that goes offline: it's multiple. This is how music gets lost to time. People who steal links are often lurkers who contribute little to Monochrome Heaven but owe a lot to our existence, which is why there is so little we can do about them. Hell, there's a chinese service which basically steals all of our links, hosts it themselves, and then puts ads on the site to make money. $cumbag central.  
This complaining can be annoying from time to time, but there are very real considerations underneath the hood that shouldn't be brushed off. On one hand, yes, people will always take music and you shouldn't share anything publicly that you would want to see publicly. On the other hand, there are right and wrong ways to share music, right and wrong reasons to share music, and the right and wrong places to do it too. When you lump all of these considerations into "this person just wants his dick sucked for promoting piracy", you lose a lot of the other aspects to the situation too. It's very complex, and the moderation team has tried (and failed) many different approaches to ameliorating the situation, but it is what it is.

only other band i'd add to the list is COHOL

opinions on old stuff is inherently biased because we tend to not talk about the stuff that sucked back in the day. but people that talk smack about new stuff will always exist, and telling them to go elsewhere isn't productive once you realize that those in love with 2008 visual kei (for example) won't find what they are looking for in 2018. they will be just as unhappy "there" as they will be "here".

ngl i don't listen to vk nearly as heavy as i used to and what i listen to most of the time are bands people don't really remember or listen to anymore. and as time passes, i have less and less people to introduce my favorite things to, and less and less people willing to talk about the same songs five, ten, fifteen years later. but i try my hardest to give new stuff a chance too and sometimes i am surprised. there's actually a bit more diversity now than five or ten years ago.

opinions on old stuff is inherently biased because we tend to not talk about the stuff that sucked back in the day. but people that talk smack about new stuff will always exist, and telling them to go elsewhere isn't productive once you realize that those in love with 2008 visual kei (for example) won't find what they are looking for in 2018. they will be just as unhappy "there" as they will be "here".

ngl i don't listen to vk nearly as heavy as i used to and what i listen to most of the time are bands people don't really remember or listen to anymore. and as time passes, i have less and less people to introduce my favorite things to, and less and less people willing to talk about the same songs five, ten, fifteen years later. but i try my hardest to give new stuff a chance too and sometimes i am surprised. there's actually a bit more diversity now than five or ten years ago.

opinions on old stuff is inherently biased because we tend to not talk about the stuff that sucked back in the day. but people that talk smack about new stuff will always exist, and telling them to go elsewhere isn't productive once you realize that those in love with 2008 visual kei (for example) won't find what they are looking for in 2018. they will be just as unhappy "there" as they will be "here".

ngl i don't listen to vk nearly as heavy as i used to and what i listen to most of the time are bands people don't really remember or listen to anymore. and as time passes, i have less and less people to introduce my favorite things to, and less and less people willing to talk about the same songs five, ten, fifteen years later. but i try my hardest to give new stuff a chance too and sometimes i am surprised. there's actually a bit more diversity now than five or ten years ago.

you know i love these long form pieces